Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about gauging relationships, your name in personal branding, how to get the most from an awful job, making the most of losing your job, and cool jobs.

From All Things Workplace: How To Measure Relationships
“Do you want to know a way to check the depth of how someone is relating to you at a given moment? Just listen and check out their language. You’ll be fascinated at how revealing it will be. ”

Wally’s Comment: Gauging relationships at work can be tricky. Steve Roesler outlines some cues that can tip you to how the other person understands your relationship.

From the Personal Branding Blog: The Power of Your Name in Personal Branding
“Your name is the single most important factor in your enterprise, whether you introduce and represent your company by speaking your name loudly and clearly while offering a hearty handshake – or write an equally hearty introductory post on a discussion thread.”

Wally’s Comment: Seems simple enough. You have a personal name and you have a personal brand, how could you mess things up? Even if you think you know it all, read this post by Nance Rosen. You’re bound to pick up at least one tip that will make your personal branding more effective.

From Forbes: How To Make The Most Of The Job You’re Stuck In
“January is supposed to be the month of fresh starts, but changing jobs is almost always harder than getting to the gym, socking away money or kicking a habit. Yet many people feel truly trapped in their jobs right now, what with the anemic employment market and the damage to their 401(k)s. They feel they’ve not only got to stay where they are, but they’ve got to work harder for less money while doing so. Without new challenges or the prospect of a raise or a promotion, anyone can lose motivation and feel frozen in place.”

Wally’s Comment: Yep, there you are in what Shaun Kieran calls a “desert island job.” Here are some ideas about what else you can do while you’re building your raft and plotting your escape.

From Satisfying Career – Happier Life: Losing Your Job May Be The Best Thing That Ever Happened To You
“You have heard the story many times. What seems to be a tragedy, such as in an illness, job loss or divorce ends up turning to triumph when the person ends up making drastic positive changes through their forced set of circumstances. Many have found themselves jobless in these trying times, frightened and wondering what to do next. The interesting twist is that a large percentage of those laid off have often said that they did not “love” their job. The job has represented security, which is of prime importance, however, in many cases, their work was not completely satisfying or fulfilling. In fact, a study prior to this economic downturn showed that 87% of people polled disliked their jobs. Since we spend approximately 75,000 hours at work from age 25 to 65, this seems to be an even sadder circumstance than a difficult job market.”

Wally’s Comment: Even if it turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to you, losing your job sucks. I know. It happened to me. But the facts are clear. Once you’re fired you rarely get un-fired. So you’ve got two choices about how to spend your time. You can pour ashes on your head and shake your fist at the sky, or you can get on with life. I suggest Option B.

From About.com: Jobs Tracking Santa
“This time of year, the people who are involved in tracking Santa as he leaves the North Pole and makes his way around the world, are very high on my list of those with cool jobs. ”

Wally’s Comment: I just had to have a Christmas post in here and this one is simply delightful. It might prove helpful, too.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about starting the New Year with a New Job, resume writing, fitting in, having an impact, and being courageous.

From Forbes: Three Tips For Starting The New Year With A New Job
“The unemployment rate has been increasing every month. If you’re like most of the 17 million Americans who are out of work, you can’t afford to wait for the economy to improve before you find employment. You need to start the new year with a new job. But how? You’ve been applying for jobs online, networking with professionals in your industry and using every resource at your disposal. How are some other people getting multiple job interviews and landing positions quickly, despite the odds?”

Wally’s Comment: A New Job for the New Year? That’s a tall order, seeing as how it’s mid-December, with Christmas hard upon us. The title is over-hype, but there are some provocative suggestions in this article that could make a difference for you.

From Applicant: 10 Key Steps To Writing a Winning Resume
“Although it takes most of us a while to write resumes that create a lasting impression, it usually takes 20-30 seconds for a prospective employer to decide whether or not you should be on the interview list. There are hundreds and thousands of tips on the web on how you can create a “killer resume,” but the one that can master the art is you. As in everything else, writing a resume requires practice. A sure fire way to make your resume stand out and deliver a perfect speech on your behalf is by following a few simple steps, simple but something that needs to be reminded often.”

Wally’s Comment: I liked this post because it was simple, straightforward, and sensible.

From Harrison Barnes: The Importance of Fitting In
“One of the most persistent mistakes people make is to not understand the importance of fitting in their work environments. Indeed, fitting in is something that enables you to both get and keep a job. In terms of what it takes to succeed in the long term, fitting in may actually be more important than your skill level. This little-known observation is something that is lost on many people and can result in unhappy and unfulfilling careers. Conversely, being aware of this often results in very happy and fulfilling careers. The problem is that it is often the very best people and those with the best academics and technical skills who are the ones who end up not fitting in.”

Wally’s Comment: Fitting in is important. I’ve just completed a study of companies who’ve been successful for a very long time. They have strong cultures. If you fit the culture at Nordstrom or WL Gore or Nucor or Enterprise Rent-a-Car, you’ll love working there. Otherwise you’ll probably hate it.

From Effective CIO: Lifetime Impact
“Last week I learned that one of the senior members of the communications group, Dan McRae, passed away.  Dan was a brilliant engineer, but he was also a kind, supportive mentor to many, many people.  As his coworkers learned of his passing, they began to share memories of Dan and the profound impact he had had on their lives.  Although I had only known Dan peripherally, those who had known and worked with him for decades echoed a common sentiment: he had made a profound difference in their lives.”

Wally’s Comment: Every one of us has people who have profoundly affected the way we are today. Christmas seems like a good time to remember them, for they are truly gifts.

From Jason Seiden at Work: Practice Courage this Holiday Season
“I had a real life fail here land at my feet tonight that I feel compelled to share. The names are being withheld because everyone involved reads my blog.”

Wally’s Comment: This is a remarkable and powerful post. Read it. Then keep it nearby so you can read it again.

It’s the Holiday Season here in the US. There are parties and gift buying and taking time to be with family. And there’s job hunting, too.

If you’re looking for a new job, the holidays present some special challenges. Your mission is to adapt your job hunt to the conditions of the season.

The business world slows down at holiday time. People take time off. Others set aside time to wrap up operations or to plan for the coming year.

This can work in your favor. A company you’re interviewing with may ramp up the process to get their hiring done before the yearend. Be ready to seize any opportunities that come your way.

More often, the hiring process will slow down. If that happens, remember there isn’t anything you can do about it. Complaining might feel good, but it won’t generate anything positive and might offend someone who’s got a say in hiring you.

If your hiring process slows down, it will free up some of your time. Use that time wisely.

Work on your relationships. The holidays are filled with social events, forced and otherwise. Use them to establish or enrich your business relationships. Let your friends and family and colleagues know that you’re looking for a new job.

Work on your materials. This is the perfect time to tune up your resume, web site, and anything else that represents you to the world.

Your situation will be unique. So keep your head up and in swivel mode, looking for opportunities. Take some time to enjoy friends, family, and the holidays, but don’t neglect that job search.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about new ways to do resumes, different education options, doing something different, surviving the impossible boss, and using feedback.

From Forbes: The New Approach to Resumes
“Paige Robinson, 22, graduated from the University of Illinois Champagne-Urbana into one of the worst job markets of all time last spring.”I started thinking of different ideas about how to stand out,” she says. “I wanted to do something that not only would get my résumé out there but would get my personality out there as well.” Fortunately for her, her father is a job search professional.”

Wally’s Comment: Change is the only constant. That’s true in job search, like anywhere else. Read this article for ideas about how you can make your resume more attractive to employers.

From the Wall Street Journal: The Alternative M.B.A.: One-Year Master’s Degrees
“More students are looking to business schools for shorter and more focused alternatives to the M.B.A., with in-depth education in everything from science of management to international finance. Schools, in turn, are beefing up the specialty programs they already offer and adding more to keep up with demand.”

Wally’s Comment: Specialty programs are worth considering if you’re looking for in-depth coursework in a functional area or if you already have experience and solid general management skills.

From Bret Simmons: Personal Branding: The Motivation to Do Something Different
“If you look around at your peers, compare yourself to them, and aspire to copy what they are doing, you will by definition become mediocre.  That has never been a good choice, but it is an even worse choice in these hypercompetitive times we live.  Why aspire to be just like everyone else when you can choose to be excellent?”

Wally’s Comment: Bret Simmons crafts this post and video on the idea that if you want to be excellent you have to do things that your peers aren’t willing to do. It’s a choice. It’s also hard work.

From Bob Sutton: Working for an “Impossible Boss:” Is the Only Option to Suffer in Silence Until You Can Escape?
“I was just reading a compelling and heavily research based by psychologist Robert Hogan called Personality and the Fate of Organizations.  In Hogan’s chapter on “The Psychology of Managerial Incompetence,” he cites an interesting study by McCall and Lomdardo (see this book for a summary of much of it) where they had interviewed a large number of managers about “career defining events.”  Every manager reported that they had spent a long stretch “working for an impossible boss, not difficult, cranky, or abusive, but impossible.”  So their first conclusion is that just about every adult will have to work for an impossible boss at some point.  The researchers reached a second conclusion that troubles me, “when working for an intolerable boss, if a person sticks up for him or herself and refuses to bullied, his or her career will be irreparably damaged.  When working for an awful boss, a person’s only option is to suffer in silence.”   I was taken aback by this advice.”

Wally’s Comment: Bob Sutton’s posts are always well-supported and well-reasoned. This post, and the comments from readers, considers the options and tactics you might choose if you’re working for that impossible boss.

From Mary Jo Asmus: Now That You Know: What Do You Do With That Feedback?
“You’ve asked for it, you’ve received it with grace, and now – what do you do with it? You have two choices.”

Wally’s Comment: There’s lots of talk about getting feedback. But feedback is useless unless you use it to change what you do. Mary Jo Asmus presents options you can select. You’ll also benefit by reading post on the same subject by Steve Roesler: “It’s Not the Feedback, its What Follows.”

If he were still alive, I’m betting Ray Charles would have another hit with this little ditty, sung to the tune of “Crying Time.”

Oh it’s survey time again, we’re gonna learn who
Is the best leadership company of all.
But I can tell by the lists I see before me
That this one’s different from the one last fall.

That’s the theme song for this post.

Fortune magazine, human resources consultants Hewitt Associates and the RBLGroup have just published their list of “The World’s Best Companies for Leaders.” Less than a year ago, the Hay Group and Chief Executive magazine came out with their list of the “Best Companies for Leaders.”

Now I’m just a simple preacher’s boy, but it seems to me that two surveys by prestigious firms of the same subject ought to come up with similar lists. But they do not.

In fact there are only three companies, IBM, Proctor and Gamble, and General Electric, who make the top ten on both lists. And that illustrates why taking these lists as some kind of scientific finding could get you in trouble.

There are all kinds of “Best Company” lists with more coming out all the time. They can provide you with some ideas about where you may want to make a career, but only if you do a little analysis.

Find out how the list was put together. Some of the lists only include companies who apply. Others use different method. The method used makes a difference in the final list.

Check to see if the list rates things that matter to you. If you want to pursue a Managerial career path, then a list of great companies for leaders may give you lots of information. But if you’re an engineer who wants to pursue a Specialist career path, you may want to look at a different list.

Use the list to spark questions, not give answers. Enterprise Rent-a-Car has appeared for years on lists for “Best Places to Launch a Career,” but their entrepreneurial, start-at-the-bottom culture isn’t for everyone.

Lists like the Fortune list and the Chief Executive list are great to spark discussions. They’re great as a starting point. Use them to determine where you want to do more research.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about dealing with holes in your resume, using Twitter to explore careers, leadership questions to ask yourself, the challenges of a new job at the same company, and why you should make your own choices.

From Forbes: How to Deal with That Hole in Your Resume
“Today unemployed Americans job hunt for an average of 28 weeks, and the recession is causing more people who have been full-time caregivers to look for work too. But prolonged unemployment, and the résumé gap that reflects it, doesn’t have to be a liability. With a carefully crafted résumé, you can minimize the attention paid to a break in employment yet promote the skills you honed during you time off.”

Wally’s Comment: More and more people have those holes in the resume. Here’s a solid article on how to present them so they do you some good.

From the Career Key Blog: 3 Ways to Use Twitter to Explore Careers and Job Options
“Just like “lurking” in a forum or following a blog, following someone on Twitter can teach you lingo, show you trends, and even get you contacts through direct email. You can use it as a way for you to follow your “community” of people interested in similar occupations or industries.”

Wally’s Comment: Most of the posts on how to use Twitter are boringly similar. Juliet Wehr Jones offers some things I haven’t seen before. Good stuff.

From Steve Roesler writing at LeaderTalk: Eight Leadership Questions to Ask Yourself
“Effective leaders —and those who want to be— have at least one thing in common: each is an ongoing student of leadership.  The ability to “learn and discern” forms the foundation for a lifetime of leading.   Why?  Because the key to success lies in choice. Decisions and the actions that follow determine the ultimate health of the organization and the people in it.”

Wally’s Comment: Too many people pursue the managerial career path reflexively. And many of them fall into The Boss Trap. One way to avoid the trap is to figure out if being a boss is something you’ll like and be good at. Steve Roesler’s questions will help you do some self-analysis, whether you’re a boss now or considering becoming one.

From the Wall Street Journal: New Job, Same Firm: Learning the Ropes
“While starting a new job means learning the ropes at an unfamiliar place, for those faced with a sudden role shift within the same company, the move can be even trickier. But it’s happening more these days as companies downsize and responsibilities shift. Whether you are moving from one internal job to another or suddenly answering to a new boss Rick Brandon, author of “Survival of the Savvy,” says you need to take steps to avoid the pitfalls of office politics and work overload. ”

Wally’s Comment: There’s always an adjustment when you take a new position. But there are some special things to consider if that job is in your current organization.

From Renegade HR: Why making your own path is way more fun (and other career insights)
“Several weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a Lunch with Leaders session with one of my informal mentors at EMC, Polly Pearson. Polly’s held many titles in her time at EMC, but a unifying thread has been her drive to create and sustain an awesome culture. Today, I’d like to share a few highlights from my lunch with Polly. ”

Wally’s Comment: Chris Ferdinandi shares insights from a conversation with one of his mentors.

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins borrows the concept of foxes and hedgehogs from Isaiah Berlin. “The fox knows many things,” he tells us. “But the hedgehog knows one big thing.”

If you are a fox, and good at a lot of things, you may find it hard to get a job. Your resume lists all the things you do well. In fact, there are often so many that no one thing stands out.

Meantime, recruiters are mostly looking for hedgehogs with deep expertise in one important thing. They need you tell them what you’re really, really, really good at.

One way to sort things out is to try to fit yourself to a T. The “T” I’m talking about is a concept developed by the consulting firm McKinsey and Company in the Seventies.

They wanted to hire consultants who were generalists with a deep expertise in a functional area. The down-stroke of a capital T represented the deep expertise. The crossbar represented the different areas that the consultant was familiar with or interested in, but not an expert.

To help you sort out what you’ve got that’s salable, try fitting yourself to a T. Start with the crossbar.

What do you have some experience in? What do you like? What industries have you worked in?

Look for the big down-stroke. What are you really good at? Where’s your deep expertise?

Your expertise might be in an industry. It might be in a functional area like accounting. Whatever it is, that’s the area your resume should feature. That’s the area where you can make a contribution.

Don’t neglect the generalist areas on the crossbar, though.  Spend some time analyzing them.

They may give you ideas of areas where you want to develop deep expertise. They should tell you something about the kind of people you want to work with and how you’ll fit into an interdisciplinary team.

If you’re good at a lot of things, try fitting yourself to a T. It should help you make some choices about what to feature on your resume and what to develop in your career.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about taking care of yourself, deciding when a project is perfect enough, working for free, the most important thing for job seekers, and negotiating for women (and the rest of us).

From LeaderTalk: Leading Self with Character: Health and Well Being
“Leaders need to stay fit both physically and mentally in order to perform at their best each day. An important component of leading self with character is paying attention to and taking care of one’s health and well being.”

Wally’s Comment: Becky Robinson shares some sensible health and well-being tips. This stuff isn’t just for “leaders,” it’s for anyone who works hard.

From Strategic Intuition: Three-Percenting
“Generally when you work on something that matters, you find yourself making a little extra effort to get everything just right. I may only be addressing the perfectionists in the crowd, but there are enough of us out there that it’s worth saying. Now, I don’t know if there’s an 80/20 rule for this, but there seems to be an 80/20 rule for everything else. So let’s suppose it takes 80% of your effort to get the last 20% “just so.” And it’s worth it, that striving for perfection. It’s what puts you above the competition, makes you stand out. It’s what keeps you from being singled out for having errors in your copy, for example. Shoot for perfect, right? But.”

Wally’s Comment: I once knew a young woman who took an incomplete in every single course in her master’s program because her papers were never perfect enough for her. Lucy, wherever you are, this post is for you. And it’s for you if you’ve ever obsessed over perfecting one thing while other important things went undone.

From the Wall Street Journal: It Costs to Work for Free
“How do you know if an unpaid experience-builder is right for you? According to Chris Anderson, author of “Free: The Future of a Radical Price,” there’s really no such thing as working for free. ”

Wally’s Comment: There’s a lot of talk right now about working for free as a way to get experience and get your foot (or some other body part) in the door of opportunity. Chris Anderson notes that there’s no such thing as truly “free.” Alexandra Levit reports on Anderson’s thoughts and others about how to sort out whether working for free is a good choice for you.

From Virtual Job Coach: The single most important best piece of advice for job seekers
“Always set a next action. I’m serious, of all the advice and guidance out there for job seekers I still think this is the “one thing” that makes all the difference in a job search, any job search.”

Wally’s Comment: Here’s another piece of advice that isn’t just for job seekers. Always setting a next action is a good habit. If you’re familiar with “Getting Things Done,” you’ll recognize David Allen’s influence. To use his language, you want a “physical, visible action” that will move you forward.

From Future Perfect: Cave in… or leave the cave?
“I’ve had lots of comments on my series of posts on women:  salary negotiation and the gender divide ( Let’s go girls… Negotiate!   and Don’t be Afraid of “No” ). Thank you!   One topic still to be covered is the issue of us ladies stepping up to the negotiating table in our current organisations, as much as six times less than our male counterparts. This can mean a loss to net life income of up to half a million dollars.  So, let’s look at what can be done about that.  Just to be clear, this is only about women taking control of their own situations and dealing with passivity,  rather than covering flagrant cases of outright discrimination ( bullying?) where there are separate procedures both internal and legal to take care of those sort of issues. ”

Wally’s Comment: A little over a month ago, Dorothy Dalton initiated a conversation on this blog about the differential between men’s and women’s salaries and whether a difference in willingness to negotiate and negotiation style and skill might explain some of the difference. This is the third post in that discussion. The principles of salary negotiation here will help you, regardless of gender. There’s also extra value in reading Dorothy’s prior posts and the discussion comments if you want to understand some of the issues in the salary differential bundle. Links to prior posts are embedded in the post.

When it comes to thankfulness, I am my mother’s child. She taught me to begin every prayer with thanks. I follow her example to write at least three thank you notes every day.

Now scientists are telling us that mom may have been on to something. Dr. Robert Emmons, from UC Davis, and his colleague Michael McCullough have researched the effects of gratitude. They’ve learned some things that you should know.

Being thankful yields benefits. Dr. Emmons found that people who took action to be thankful slept better and longer. They had more energy. And thankful people are more likely to be successful.

The key experiment supporting that last finding involved keeping a gratitude journal. One group of subjects kept such a journal for two months. The control group did nothing special.

Both groups set goals. Emmons found that people in the thankful group were “significantly more likely to achieve personal goals” than people in the the control group.

You don’t have to believe this. You can run your own experiment. Thanksgiving seems like a good time to start.

There are “thankfulness gurus” out there who have elaborate daily rituals you can practice. I suggest simple actions tied to things you do already.

If you meditate, make being thankful part of your meditation. If you keep a journal, make special note of things you’re thankful for. If you’ve got a special time when you plan or review your day, add being thankful to the routine.

The researchers tell us that you’ll get even more benefit if you “express thankfulness.” I translate that as “say thank you.”

Say thank-you in a way that fits your style and habit. You can call people or visit them. You can follow my mother’s habit and write thank-you notes.

Once I asked her what she did if there was no one to thank. She gave me her “mom-look” and said, “Wally, there’s ALWAYS someone to thank.” She was right about that, like so many things. One of things I’m thankful for is the lessons she taught me.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about finding your way in a tough job market, networking, learning to lead, when to avoid setting goals, and mixing personal and professional.

From Anita Bruzzese: 8 tips to help you find your way in this tough job market
“You may not think you have a superpower, but if the only way you’re looking for a job is by applying to companies or job boards on the Web, you’ve just become invisible.”

Wally’s Comment: Yep, unemployment’s still going up and that means more competition for fewer jobs. Here are some tips on how to make the best of it all.

From CareerBuilder: How to Network without Being Phony, Lame or Desperate
“Let’s face it: Even when you’re on top of the world, chances are good that the idea of networking sounds like a big, fat drag. You can probably think of 100 other things you’d rather do — like cleaning the blades of your ceiling fan. But if you’re one of the 14.9 million people who are competing for what seems to be a handful of jobs, your confidence has probably taken a hit. So now is probably not the time to be meeting anyone new. In fact, now is not the time to get out of your pajamas.”

Wally’s Comment: Standard go-to-a-mixer-and-hand-out-as-many-cards-as-possible networking doesn’t work for most people. Even worse, most of us hate it. Here are some ideas about how to get the benefits of networking without the silliness.

From Management Excellence: Don’t Wait for the Title to Start Leading
“The time to start leading is now, long before anyone has bestowed the title of leader on you. Much like the famous trio of Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Woodman of Oz-fame, they didn’t really need the Wizard to bestow a brain, courage or a heart, and you don’t need someone to anoint you as a leader before you can start learning and practicing.”

Wally’s Comment: If you think you might want to follow a managerial career path or avoid the “Boss Trap,” you need to start experimenting to figure out if leadership is for you. Art Petty suggests some ways to do that.

From the Change Blog: Want to Change? Stop Setting Goals
“One of the most widespread ideas in the world of personal development is SMART goal-setting – it seems to have seeped into every self-help, business development and corporate training program out there. Just in case you’ve somehow managed to avoid attending these workshops – or more likely slept through them – SMART is an acronym for a set of criteria that people are encouraged to use to get really clear on the outcome they’re aiming for when they’re setting goals, because this increase your success in achieving your goals.”

Wally’s Comment: This piece challenges the usually unchallenged assumption that the only road to any kind of change requires a stop at goal setting. Cath Duncan references one version of the SMART acronym in her post. DePaul University professor Robert S. Rubin “examined the first 40 Web sites that contained information about SMART goals, which included a full range of sites from fitness information, to state agency planning manuals, business articles, and university counseling centers.” There were enough different meanings for each of the letters to form almost 9000 different versions of the SMART acronym.

From the Talent Revolution: Your Private Life and Your Professional Life are the Same Online
“You’ve heard it before: Much like a work-related function versus a happy hour with friends, there are different rules of protocol with a LinkedIn interaction (professional) versus a Facebook interaction (personal). In fact, according to this recent poll, 43% of people believe personal and professional social networks should be kept separate. Good luck with that!”

Wally’s Comment: It was way back in 1999 when Scott McNealy made his famous statement: “You have no privacy. Get over it.” He was talking about the line between public and private in the Information Age. Since then, even more lines have blurred. Jon Gillespie suggests that you lead a life with lots of parts and it’s only natural that the online version of that life will blend them. So what do you do about that? Here are Jon’s suggestions.